Question

If you are given a specimen, what are the steps that you would follow to classify it?

Answer 1

There is a certain common fundamental feature that helps in the classification of living organisms. The features that can be used in classification are as follows:

1. Level of classification
   • cellular level
   • tissuel level
   • organ level
2. Body cavity
   • Absent
   • present
3. Type of body symmetry
   • Radial
   • Bilateral
4. Type of coelom development
   • Acoelom
   • Pseudocoelom
   • True coelom
5. Type of coelom
   • Entercoelom
   • Schinzocoelom

Answer 2

Various steps considered to classify a specimen are:

1. Mode of nutrition – It can be autotrophic, holozoic, saprophytic or parasitic.
2. Complexity of body structure: whether the specimen is unicellular or multicellular.
3. Presence or absence of membrane bound organelles.
4. Body symmetry, i.e., the plane by which an organism can be divided into two equal halves,
5. Presence or absence of coelom, it can be acoelomates, pseudocoelomates, eucoelo- mates.
6. Phylogenetic relationship.